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Monday, January 5, 2009

A Quick 2008 Recap

Ok, I won't go into excruciating details of what I accomplished in 2008 (hence the title 'quick 2008 recap') but I will summarize what I consider to be the highlights (and sometimes lowlights) and what I came away with in 2008:

Probably for the first time EVER, I ran the entire year injury-free. It's not like I took it easy, running my first race on Jan 1st, 2008 and my last race on Dec 28th, 2008. Having no data to back up my theory, I credit snowshoe racing and trail racing early in the year as the main reason(s) for this.

Ran a total of 1,811 miles for an average of 5.9 miles per run. I had a secret goal of breaking 2,000 miles but I'll take injury-free over 2000 miles any day.

Snowshoed a total of 120.3 miles in my first year on snowshoes. Maybe it's me but the miles never got any easier. Every time out felt just as hard as the previous one.

Completed two 200+ mile, 12-person relays (Madison-Chicago 200 and Reach the Beach) with two different teams. Both teams finished 5th overall.

Best performance of the year: Baystate Marathon (2:58). Ran on pace, negative splits and recovered quickly.

Worst performance of the year: Mt Washington Road Race (1:30). Started off slow, got slower, finished going backwards I think. For the first time ever I vowed never to run this stupid uphill race again. 7 months later I'm still on the fence.

5 comments:

First: you ran 31 races!!! That's awesome. I love it when I'm not the only one racing all the time :)...

Second: Awesome job at Baystate!!! negative splits is something I did NOT do. 1:17 and then 1:27... yikes. Also, nice job on PR'ing in the half!!

Third: You absolutely NEED to do Washington again. The day of the race, I vowed never again...since the day after, I have been looking forward to round 2!

Lastly, seeing your summary makes me want to do one of my own, but I don't know if I have the patience to go through and add up everything :). I didn't start using my current log until like half way through the year and have been trying to back fill stuff...but slow goings.

Looking at your schedule (which it looks like you copy & pasted a couple times too many on the right hand side of your blog), we will be at a lot of the same races this year!!! Good stuff.

ES20 is unique in that it runs through 3 states. It starts in Kittery, runs through downtown Portsmouth and then generally follows Rt 1A along the coast all the way to Salisbury, Ma. Since it's a point to point race there are two issues to think about: 1)logistics and 2)weather.

They offer a bus service to bring you to the start and back to your car, or you can arrange your own ride.The weather 'can' be a factor to consider. The entire race is ONE direction, traveling north to south. So, if you have a headwind your day will suck and you may consider jumping into the Atlantic. Of course, if you have a tail wind you may be doing the Snoopy dance the whole way down!The course is mostly flat and does offer a nice view. I'd recommend it if you've never done it before. Good luck!